“The longer you wait for something, the more you appreciate it when you get it. Because anything worth having is always worth the wait.”

~ Unknown

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“PRABHU!!”

An anxious scream was heard with a loud thud the moment Sanskaar opened the door next morning and he instantly jumped back, retreating himself away from the door.

“What the…” was the only thing he could say before finding out someone sprawled all across his front door, joining his hands in front of him in the exact position of ‘shashtang dandwat pranam’. And he knew exactly who that was!

“Sanskaar, what happened? I heard…” Sujata, who came out running on hearing the unusual holler, was too stunned to speak anything further as she found someone lying in front of her son as if he considered Sanskaar his master, the sole reason for his existence. “Wait. Is that?”

Sanskaar took a deep breath massaging the bridge of his nose as he glared down at his only friend in the entire of Siliguri, “Lucky, get up!” he ordered and all he received in response was a vigorous shake of his friend’s head as he refused to get up, no matter what. This guy lying down there was one stubborn specimen God had created twenty seven years ago. Well then, he wasn’t any less stubborn either!

Sanskaar sighed rolling his eyes, “Laksh Dilsher Ahuja, get up or I will seriously kick your face.” He threatened looking down only to find a pair of pleading eyes staring up at him as if his life depended on him. Sanskaar knew that look very well. He definitely wanted something! And whenever Laksh asked him to do something, it ended up in nothing but a disaster!

“No,” was the only thing Sanskaar said before turning around and making his way back inside, and Laksh whined just like a kid who’s favorite candy was being snatched away. Well, he was no less than a kid either!

“Please! You haven’t even asked what I want,” he shouted as he ran inside right after Sanskaar and Sujata chuckled. After all these excruciating two years, Laksh had been the only person who managed to make Sanskaar smile. He was well aware of all that had happened, so, Laksh, or Lucky as Sanskaar called him, always tried to do something crazy just to see a smile on his friend’s face. If she had to say that Laksh was Sanskaar’s best friend then that would not be an exaggeration.

“I haven’t because I don’t want to know what you want. Isn’t that obvious?” said Sanskaar trying to glare at Laksh as he tied the kitchen apron around his waist before starting with the breakfast, but that look on Laksh’s face seemed like melting him down. He didn’t know why but Sanskaar just couldn’t stand seeing Laksh with a sad face.

“Aunty…” Laksh dragged his puppy eyes look towards Sujata now. He knew it quite well that this look was his ultimate weapon when it came to mothers, be it either his or Sanskaar’s. Sujata let out a small laugh as she walked towards him, “Looks like Bhavana has cooked something quite delicious today. You seem so full of energy early in the morning, Laksh.”

“Nah! I’m dying out of hunger over here. Maa has not even started making the breakfast but I’m so glad that my friend is so talented. He will surely not let me die out of hunger,” Laksh, yet again, gave that innocent eye look to him and Sanskaar squinted his eyebrow looking at him and then with a shake of his head resumed chopping his vegetables again.

Ouch! That had surely hurt!

Laksh seemed apparently heartbroken on his friend’s ignorance but Sanskaar knew him all too well. He was anything but heartbroken! All of this victim play was just to make Sanskaar feel guilty and get his thing done.

Mustering up the sweetest smile he could, Laksh made Sujata sit on a chair just outside the kitchen and sat near her feet himself, “Aunty, will you please ask Sanskaar to help me out? I’m so distressed right now. My life depends on his ‘yes’.”

Sanskaar rolled his eyes as he heard this. The way Laksh was saying all of those seemed as if he had proposed him for marriage and he would be able to live only if Sanskaar said ‘yes’ to him. All of that sounded so dramatic! Sanskaar sighed heavily. Now that his mother had been involved, the chances of him denying whatever Laksh was asking him for seemed pretty much sleek.

“And what is it that you need help for?” asked Sujata as she caressed Laksh’s head lovingly.

“He just needs to go to the library for a couple of hours and by that time I need to get a very very very important work of mine done,” Laksh completed avoiding to look at Sanskaar completely, for he knew the look Sanskaar was giving him at this very moment was nothing but a sign of danger.

“I’m a doctor, Laksh Dilsher Ahuja, not a librarian,” Sanskaar stated the obvious from the very place he was standing and Laksh squeezed his eyes shut. Whenever Sanskaar took his complete name, he knew exactly what he had to do. He got back to his feet abruptly and sprinted towards him and even before Sanskaar could understand anything, Laksh was back on the ground holding his feet, “Prabhu! Pretty please!”

“For heavens sake, leave my leg, Laksh. And stop calling me that!” Sanskaar complained loudly holding the kitchen platform to prevent himself from falling as he stumbled backwards.

“Please! Please! Please!” Laksh almost pleaded shaking Sanskaar’s leg vigorously. Sanskaar gave Sujata a pleading look but she seemed to be enjoying it way too much to stop Laksh or even convince him to leave his leg.

Taking a deep breath, Sanskaar tried to free his leg from those deadly clutches and complained, “I am not a librarian, Laksh.”

“And neither am I. My father is and he wants me to go there as he’s not feeling well, and even the school is closed as it’s Saturday today. But… But, I can’t.”

“So, it is about your new girlfriend this time,” Sanskaar made a guess folding both his arms across his chest and Laksh’s head shot up to look at him. “How did you… what? I mean… no! No!” Laksh blurted out and Sanskaar raised an eyebrow.

Laksh sighed in defeat, “Alright, yes! She’s is angry and I need sometime to convince her.”

“What did you do exactly to make her angry?”

“I-I did nothing. She just saw me with some other girl and freaked out,” Laksh admitted and that earned him a really hard kick the very next moment. “You were cheating on her, Laksh? Didn’t I ask you to be loyal to the one you are in a relationship with?” Sanskaar glared at  him furiously and Laksh knew that his friend was really angry this time.

“No! I didn’t cheat on her, Sanskaar. I promise. She’s not like all those girls. She’s different. She has made me feel all those things no one else ever did. I will never break her heart. She’s too good for that, too innocent for that. She means a lot to me, a lot more than she even knows and I don’t intend to leave her anytime sooner or later. I’m planning to hold onto her tight… really tight,” Laksh said all of that in one breath and had his head still bowed down when Sanskaar somehow managed to get down on knees with one of his legs still in his grip and smacked the back of his head.

“Ow!” Laksh hissed looking up, only to find Sanskaar smiling down at him. “Go and tell her the exact same thing,” said Sanskaar and Laksh was stunned.

“W-What?”

“Go and tell her exactly what you had told me now. I’m pretty sure it will all be fine.”

Laksh gave him a million dollar smile as soon as the realization dawned upon him, “That means… you agree?”

Sanskaar glanced at his wrist watch and showed it to Laksh as well, “It’s 8:00 a.m. right now. I’ll be there by 8:30 a.m. and my shift starts at the hospital at 12:30 p.m. So, I’m giving you exactly three and a half hours to go, convince her and get back to the library.”

“And...”

“And I won’t tell Dilsher Uncle that you ran away from the library,” promised Sanskaar, knowing what exactly Laksh intended to say.

“You’re the best, Sanskaar,” Laksh exclaimed with joy leaving Sanskaar’s leg, hurtling towards him and tackling him in a hug making both of them land on the floor. Sanskaar laid there sprawled on the floor and Laksh almost above him, all set for his scolding. But what came unexpectedly was a hearty laugh. Sanskaar had placed his palm over his eyes as he laughed his heart out. And soon enough Laksh joined him as well as both of them laid down there on the floor side-by-side laughing that crazily after what seemed like ages.

And for Sujata, she just couldn’t take her eyes off of Sanskaar. Only she knew how much she longed for this laughter, to see her son that happy. Wiping off the lone tear gliding down her cheeks she called them out, “If you both don’t hurry up now, you will be late. Sanskaar, son, you can go and get ready. I’ll get the breakfast ready by then.”

Sanskaar removed his hand from his eyes and looked at his mother as he somehow managed tone his laughter down. Taking a deep breath he said, “But Maa…”

“No ifs and buts. Or else you will be late,” Sanskaar got up nodding his head knowing that his mother was right. As Laksh got back up, Sanskaar opened his palm towards him. Laksh furrowed his eyebrows looking at his palm trying to understand what he meant. Sanskaar rolled his eyes and chuckled at his expressions. His friend was definitely the king of expressions.

“Keys, Laksh. I want keys of the library.”

“Oh, my bad!” Laksh blurted and gave him the keys fetching them from his jeans pocket. Securing the keys in his fist, Sanskaar made his way towards his room to get ready.

“You know what?” Laksh called out when Sanskaar was only halfway to his room. He turned around to find Laksh standing by his mother’s side, with a smile on each of their faces. What was cooking inside of his head now?

“What?”

“I just love you!”

Sanskaar rolled his eyes, “Shut up, Lucky! Three and a half hours only. Don’t forget and now get out of my house!”

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Sanskaar took a deep breath as he took a quick glance at the huge vintage clock hanging on the wall right in front of the librarian’s desk. It was 10:35 a.m. One hour and twenty five minutes more to go! He closed the book he had been reading, and decided to take a quick walk around the library.

The library was nothing extravagant. It was just a mediocre one built with red bricks in the Victorian style, and tried its best to cater to the needs of the people of Siliguri. Built several decades ago, it was totally worn out with hardly anyone to maintain it, until a couple of years ago when the government finally decided to restore it. Laksh’s father, Mr. Dilsher Ahuja was made the first librarian of the place after that.

And now, regaining its shine all over again, the library stood proudly in the middle of the city and was the place of solitude for many. And Sanskaar was definitely one of them. Whenever he had some time, he would just walk up to this place to read something or the other. The silence of this place rendered an unsaid placidity to his heart. He always found himself at peace whenever he surrounded himself with those books. Lined up neatly on those rows, it seemed as if those books smiled at him, realizing that it was something he needed the most.

Getting back after a round of around fifteen minutes, Sanskaar sat back to resume reading one of the random books he had picked up for the day. He had hardly read a few lines when two books were placed abruptly on the librarian’s desk with a thud.

“How dare you?” he heard someone shout and when he raised his head, his eyes met with two absolutely livid eyes of the person standing in front of him. With her lips tightened in a thin line, and both her hands on the either side of her waist, she seemed more than furious at that very moment.

“Excuse me? Is there a problem with any of these books? Please tell me your name first, I need to check the list for any dues,” Sanskaar asked trying to calm her down and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Swara. But my name is not the main concern over here,” she shouted again and Sanskaar had this sudden urge to tape her mouth shut. What was wrong with her?

“Then what is it? And can you please keep your volume low? There are people who are trying to read over here,” Sanskaar whispered reprimanding her and Swara narrowed her eyes. The nerve of this man to talk to her like that!

“How can you talk to me like that?” Swara shouted again and Sanskaar scowled at her. “Keep your volume low or I’ll have to throw you out of the library this very instant,” Sanskaar threatened her and Swara’s nostrils flared with anger. Hadn’t been this man so handsome, she would have loved to punch that face of his!

“You broke my best friend’s heart and now you have the audacity to shout at me.”

Wait! What?! Was she mistaking him for someone else?

“W-What? Are you sure that you are talking to the correct person?” Sanskaar enquired and Swara furrowed her eyebrows.

“No! No! Don’t even try to confuse me like that. I know guys like you very well. You use that gorgeous face of yours to trap innocent girls and then you break their hearts,” Swara blurted out in the heat of moment and soon enough the realization dawned upon her.

Did she really call him gorgeous? Seriously!

Swara face palmed herself mentally and the confused look on Sanskaar’s face was not helping either. She sighed, “I want you to apologize to her.”

“Why should I apologize?” Sanskaar was taken aback by her demand. Was she crazy? Or was aiming to make him go crazy?

“Why should you apologize? Are you serious? You cheated on her. She had been crying all night because she saw you with someone else.”

Sanskaar huffed angrily. It was official. He was going to kill Laksh!

“Look… um… Ms. Swara. I think you’ve made a mistake. I’m not the person you’re searching for,” Sanskaar tried to reason but Swara seemed too furious to understand anything. “Every criminal, who gets caught, says the same thing.”

“Cri-Criminal? Do I look like a criminal to you?” Sanskaar was in a utter disbelief. Whose face had he seen early in the morning today that he was meeting such a weird creature? The luck didn’t seem to like being by his side for quite long.

But before he could do anything about his luck, he was going to kill Laksh! And he had already devised quite a number of plans to accomplish this task!

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Note:

Prabhu: Lord/ divine/ chief/ master/ the one who has majesty

Shashtang Dandwat Pranam: a way doing namaskar in front of someone revered (in Hindu culture)

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A/N

Thank you so much everyone for all the love and support. That really means a lot to me. Please keep showering your love and appreciations on the story. I hope you all are enjoying it. Do give your views and thoughts on the story. That really keeps me going!

Also, I was planning to post this story as a general fiction as well on my other ID GS_Stella27. But I'm not quite sure whether it's a good idea or not! Is this story really worth it? So, I need your help in this regard. Please drop down your suggestions regarding this.

With love,
Stella ❤️